Day 4: Petrified Forest

We got a semi-early start this morning... around 7:30 or so. Our destination for the night was a campground in the Grand Canyon National Park. On our way, Paul's cousin, Kyle, took us on a tour of the Petrified Forest National Park on the eastern side of Arizona. He works as security there and he led us through the whole park explaining things as we went. It was super helpful to have him lead the tour. I'm sure it wouldn't have been half as interesting if we just drove through ourselves.

Paul with his cousin, Kyle

The rock formations are very beautiful and the petrified wood sprinkled through the canyon looked like lots of sparkling glass from far above.

Behind me and the girls in the photo is the Painted Desert. The Painted Desert is a part of the Petrified Forest. Supposedly, the coloring of the rocks change with the sun's changing rays throughout the day. We didn't stay all day to find out... I'll take their word for it.

The kids are now official Petrified Forest Jr. Rangers. They had to fill out a workbook about the Park and were sworn into duty. They got badges and iron-on patches to boot!

The actual petrified trees were interesting. Many were broken and mined for their quartz before it was a National Park. They are very heavy for their size... AND it's a federal felony to take any of the petrified wood from the Park! Along with other things, part of Kyle's job as security is to make sure no one takes any wood rocks. Crazy!

After the Petrified Forest, we headed up to the Grand Canyon for our first night in our camper. The weather tonight is supposed to be around 23 degrees! We bought another small portable heater at Home Depot before we got there. Hopefully they'll do their job...

We pulled into the campground at the Grand Canyon to set up and I quickly remembered why I don't like camping (especially in a pop-up). The camp spot we got was one of the last ones, and was a bit wet. In fact, there is a long, muddy puddle just a few feet outside our door that stretches the entire length of our site. So much for Nathan playing outside. He'd go right for it. Another "bonus" is having neighbors within 20 feet on either side... makes letting your baby cry himself to sleep a bit more challenging. Oh, yeah, and the highlight of camping (the good ol' campfire and smores) is not gonna happen. $1500 fine if you try. Good news is... I think we are the ONLY pop-up in the entire RV park, which means we get dibs on the bathrooms! (since everyone else has facilities in their campers).

Here is our sleeping arrangements. All six kids are on one side of the camper (playpen and all). And Paul and I are in the "queen" on the other side. Good night for now, and tomorrow... on to the Grand Canyon!

On-the-road Homeschooling Lesson number 3: Making peanut butter and honey sandwiches in the car is much easier if the bread is pre-cut. Duh.